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Wednesday, 5 June 2013

Money Measurement Concept

Money Measurement Concept in accounting, also known as Measurability Concept, means that only transactions and events that are capable of being measured in monetary terms are recognized in the financial statements.On the balance sheet:All transactions and events recorded in the financial statements must be reduced to a unit of monetary currency. Where it is not possible to assign a reliable monetary value to a transaction or event, it shall not be recorded in the financial statements.However, any material transactions and events that are not recorded for failing to meet the measurability criteria might need be disclosed in the supplementary notes of financial statements to assist the users in gaining a better understanding of the financial performance and position of the entity.The recognition criteria defined by IASB and FASB require that the elements of financial statements (i.e. assets, liabilities, income and expense) must only be recognized in the financial statements if its cost or value can be measured with sufficient reliability. Therefore, an entity shall not recognize an element of financial statement unless a reliable value can be assigned to it.In many cases however the preparers of financial statements are unable to arrive at a precise amount to be recognized in the financial statements and must resort to the use of reasonable estimates in arriving at an approximate value. The use of reasonable estimates is a very important component in the preparation of financial statements and as long as forming estimates do not involve a high degree of subjectivity and uncertainty they do not undermine the reliability of financial information.Where a significant element of financial statement is not recognized because of the inability to measure its monetary value with sufficient reliability, it may be disclosed in the supplementary notes of financial statements to enhance the users' understandability and completeness of the presented financial information.For example: IAS 38 Intangible Assets and ASC 350 Intangibles - Goodwill and Other require that internally generated goodwill shall not be recognized as an asset in the balance sheet. This is due to the difficulty in identifying and measuring the cost of internally generated goodwill as distinct from the cost of running the day to day operations of the business.